The European Union’s policy on organic waste is rooted in the circular economy package, aiming to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, improve efficiency, and reduce environmental pressures. This sub-project of the WMCE Umbrella Project focuses on how EU legislation promotes circular economy principles across Member States, encouraging waste reduction, better recycling practices, and extended producer responsibility—especially for organic waste.
A key goal is to avoid landfilling and instead valorise organic waste as a resource, turning it into products like organic fertilisers, soil improvers, and other bio-based materials. The project explores both established and emerging treatment technologies such as anaerobic digestion, composting, biomethane production, phosphorus recovery, and pyrolysis. By examining these methods, the project highlights how organic waste management contributes to climate goals and supports the transition to a clean, low-carbon, and circular economy.
The project studies focus on the followings:
- Investigating legislation and investigations on organic waste management
- Identifying different approaches in member states that can contribute to the overall objective of achieving a circular economy in Europe and sharing good practices on how they are implemented.
- Investigating new business models for organic waste managing
- Investigating new streams for organic waste as valuable resource
- Developing recommendations for all member states on possibilities and sustainable streams of organic waste.Thank you for visiting.
Follow this page for updates and key developments throughout the course of the project.